LOT Polish Airlines is so frustrated with Boeing over Boeing 787 issues and the grounding of the 737 MAX aircraft that it is considering becoming an Airbus customer. The airline has a goal to unify its fleet by the year 2030, so is there really a possibility that it could become an Airbus-only operator by then?
LOT Polish Airlines is not overly happy with Boeing
Polish weekly news magazine Polityka reports that LOT Polish Airlines is reportedly so frustrated with Boeing for not paying it compensation for the MAX grounding that it may soon become an Airbus operator.
LOT Polish Airlines, the Polish flag carrier, has a fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, Boeing 737 MAX 8s, Boeing 737-800s, and Embraer E195, E190, E175, and E170 aircraft.
The airline did not receive any compensation for the grounding of the 737 MAX 8 aircraft from Boeing, and which LOT relied on for its rapid expansion strategy.
Furthermore, the Boeing 787s too are having ongoing issues which caused operational difficulties for LOT Polish Airlines. These difficulties included the delay of a new long-haul route launch to China.
Acquiring Airbus aircraft is on the cards
As a result of thhe issues with both the 737s and the 787s, LOT is now actively thinking of purchasing Airbus aircraft. Krzysztof Moczulski, a spokesman for LOT, said:
“Airbus is definitely in the game. This of course does not cancel the existing suppliers, Boeing and Embraer.”
LOT Polish Airlines is one of just a few European airlines that do not use Airbus aircraft, along with KLM of The Netherlands.
If the airline does follow through with its desire to unify its fleet by 2030, then it could replace all its Boeing 737 and 737 MAX aircraft with Airbus A320 family aircraft and its Embraer aircraft with the A220. The 787 could be replaced by A350s. But this would mean a complete fleet change, and this is unlikely because many of the aircraft in LOT’s fleet are relatively new.
LOT Polish is considering a lawsuit
LOT Polish Airlines did not receive any compensation for its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft being grounded for two years because there are no written guarantees in its leasing contract that compensation is due as a result of technical problems.
Boeing is now relying on this fact to deny LOT Polish the compensation that LOT Polish wants to receive. Although the matter appears reasonably straightforward, LOT does not think so. Krzysztof Moczulski, the spokesman, said:
“We are in the process of negotiations, but at the same time we are considering a lawsuit.”
Simple Flying reached out to Boeing for their input on the situation, but had not responded at the time of publication.
The problems with the 787s do not help
LOT’s frustration also stems from the fact that the Boeing 787 has had various ongoing issues since shortly after the airline introduced it to its fleet in 2012.
Ongoing problems with batteries, cables, and motors mean that LOT needs to put its 787s out of service for repairs more frequently than it had originally planned would be the case for brand new machines.
This was a particular problem before the pandemic because surplus aircraft capacity was low, and so LOT Polish had to pay higher fees for short-term leases than is the case these days.
Do you think LOT will ultimately purchase Airbus aircraft?
Source: https://simpleflying.com/lot-polish-boeing-737-max-negotiations-ongoing/
